Agricultural harvesters such as combines or windrowers, travel through fields of agricultural crop harvesting the crop. In one common arrangement, agricultural harvesting heads extend forward from the agricultural harvester to engage the plant stalks, sever them, and carry the severed crop into the body of the agricultural harvester itself for further processing.
The agricultural harvesting heads are supported on feeder houses, which are boxlike structures that extend forward from the agricultural harvester. Feeder houses comprise hollow rectangular box-like housings with an open front end and an open rear end. A feet conveyor is fixed inside the housing. The feed conveyor typically comprises a laterally extending front shaft extending through the sidewalls of the housing at the front of the housing where it couples to the agricultural harvesting head and a laterally extending rear shaft that extends through the sidewalls of the housing at the rear of the housing where it couples to the combine. Two endless chain belts extend around these two shafts, typically on toothed sprockets. Elongate slats are fixed to and between these two chain belts and extend laterally, generally parallel to the two shafts.
As the two shafts rotate, they cause the chains or belts to recirculate, which in turn causes the slats to drag across the floor of the feeder house housing. The slats extending downward from the lower run of the endless chains or belts grip the top of the cut crop material and drag it into the feederhouse. The slats drag the cut crop material upward on the floor of the feederhouse and release it into the combine itself.
One problem with this arrangement is excessive noise and wear. Chain belts running on toothed sprockets are noisy. Further, the metal links in the chain wear against each other. For this reason, some manufacturers have replaced the feed conveyor chain belts with fiber reinforced rubber (elastomeric) belts.
Unfortunately, these fiber reinforced rubber belts cannot be reliably spliced at each end. The splices at the end of the belt loosens and the belt itself pulls loose or breaks.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,460,945 B2 shows an endless track.
What is needed is an endless belt and coupler for a feederhouse feed conveyor that can be more easily assembled, can be assembled more tightly and consistently, and is less likely to loosen or break.
It is an object of this invention to provide such a belt and coupler arrangement.